Overview of Message-Level Security

Message-level security specifies whether the SOAP messages between a client application and the Web Service invoked by the client should be digitally signed or encrypted, or both. It also can specify a shared security context between the Web Service and client in the event that they exchange multiple SOAP messages. You can use message-level security to assure:

Confidentiality, by encrypting message parts

Integrity, by digital signatures

Authentication, by requiring username, X.509, or SAML tokens

See Configuring Simple Message-Level Security: Main Steps for the basic steps you must perform to configure simple message-level security. This section discusses configuration of the Web Services runtime environment, as well as configuration of message-level security for a particular Web Service and how to code a client application to invoke the service.

These specifications provide security token propagation, message integrity, and message confidentiality. These mechanisms can be used independently (such as passing a username token for user authentication) or together (such as digitally signing and encrypting a SOAP message and specifying that a user must use X.509 certificates for authentication).

The WS-Trust specification defines extensions that provide a framework for requesting and issuing security tokens, and to broker trust relationships.

The WS-SecureConversation specification defines mechanisms for establishing and sharing security contexts, and deriving keys from security contexts, to enable the exchange of multiple messages. Together, the security context and derived keys potentially increase the overall performance and security of the subsequent exchanges.

Web Services SecurityPolicy 1.2

The WS-Policy specification defines a framework for allowing Web Services to express their constraints and requirements. Such constraints and requirements are expressed as policy assertions.

WS-SecurityPolicy defines a set of security policy assertions for use with the WS-Policy framework to describe how messages are to be secured in the context of WSS: SOAP Message Security, WS-Trust and WS-SecureConversation.

You configure message-level security for a Web Service by attaching one or more policy files that contain security policy statements, as specified by the WS-SecurityPolicy specification. See Using Policy Files for Message-Level Security Configuration for detailed information about how the Web Services runtime environment uses security policy files.

Main Use Cases of Message-Level Security

The implementation of the Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security specification supports the following use cases:

Use X.509 certificates to sign and encrypt a SOAP message, starting from the client application that invokes the message-secured Web Service, to the WebLogic Server instance that is hosting the Web Service and back to the client application.

Specify the SOAP message targets that are signed, encrypted, or required: the body, specific SOAP headers, or specific elements.

Include a token (username, SAML, or X.509) in the SOAP message for authentication.

Specify that a Web Service and its client (either another Web Service or a standalone application) establish and share a security context when exchanging multiple messages using WS-SecureConversation (WSSC).

Derive keys for each key usage in a secure context, once the context has been established and is being shared between a Web Service and its client. This means that a particular SOAP message uses two derived keys, one for signing and another for encrypting, and each SOAP message uses a different pair of derived keys from other SOAP messages. Because each SOAP message uses its own pair of derived keys, the message exchange between the client and Web Service is extremely secure.

Using Policy Files for Message-Level Security Configuration

You specify the details of message-level security for a WebLogic Web Service with one or more security policy files. The WS-SecurityPolicy specification provides a general purpose model and XML syntax to describe and communicate the security policies of a Web Service.

Note:

Previous releases of WebLogic Server, released before the formulation of the WS-SecurityPolicy specification, used security policy files written under the WS-Policy specification, using a proprietary schema for security policy. This proprietary schema for security policy is deprecated, and it is recommended that you use the WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 format.

This release of WebLogic Server supports either security policy files that conform to the WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 specification or the Web Services security policy schema first included in WebLogic Server 9, but not both in the same Web Service. The formats are mutually incompatible.

The security policy files used for message-level security are XML files that describe whether and how the SOAP messages resulting from an invoke of an operation should be digitally signed or encrypted. They can also specify that a client application authenticate itself using a username, SAML, or X.509 token.

You use the @Policy and @Policies JWS annotations in your JWS file to associate policy files with your Web Service. You can associate any number of policy files with a Web Service, although it is up to you to ensure that the assertions do not contradict each other. You can specify a policy file at both the class- and method level of your JWS file.

Using Policy Files With JAX-WS

For maximum portability, Oracle recommends that you use WS-Policy 1.2 and OASIS WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 with JAX-WS.

Version-Independent Policy Supported

This version of WebLogic Server supports version-independent policy. You can combine protocol-specific policies such as WS-SecurityPolicy and WS-ReliableMessaging policy that are based on different versions of the WS-Policy specification. At runtime, the merged policy file then contains two or more different namespaces.

There are three versions of WS-SecurityPolicy in this release of WebLogic Server:

If the client program wants to know what version of the policy or security policy is used, use the versioning API to return the namespace and versioning information.

Configuring Simple Message-Level Security: Main Steps

The following procedure describes how to configure simple message-level security for the Web Services security runtime, a particular WebLogic Web Service, and a client application that invokes an operation of the Web Service. In this document, simple message-level security is defined as follows:

The Web Service makes its associated security policy files publicly available by attaching them to its deployed WSDL, which is also publicly visible.

The Web Services runtime uses the out-of-the-box private key and X.509 certificate pairs, store in the default keystores, for its encryption and digital signatures, rather than its own key pairs. These out-of-the-box pairs are also used by the core WebLogic Server security subsystem for SSL and are provided for demonstration and testing purposes. For this reason Oracle highly recommends you use your own keystore and key pair in production. To use key pairs other than out-of-the-box pairs, see Using Key Pairs Other Than the Out-Of-The-Box SSL Pair.

Note:

If you plan to deploy the Web Service to a cluster in which different WebLogic Server instances are running on different computers, you must use a keystore and key pair other than the out-of-the-box ones, even for testing purposes. The reason is that the key pairs in the default WebLogic Server keystore, DemoIdentity.jks, are not guaranteed to be the same across WebLogic Servers running on different machines.

If you were to use the default keystore, the WSDL of the deployed Web Service would specify the public key from one of these keystores, but the invoke of the service might actually be handled by a server running on a different computer, and in this case the server's private key would not match the published public key and the invoke would fail. This problem only occurs if you use the default keystore and key pairs in a cluster, and is easily resolved by using your own keystore and key pairs.

The client invoking the Web Service uses a username token to authenticate itself, rather than an X.509 token.

The client invoking the Web Service is a stand-alone Java application, rather than a module running in WebLogic Server.

Later sections describe some of the preceding scenarios in more detail, as well as additional Web Services security uses cases that build on the simple message-level security use case.

It is assumed in the following procedure that you have already created a JWS file that implements a WebLogic Web Service and you want to update it so that the SOAP messages are digitally signed and encrypted. It is also assumed that you use Ant build scripts to iteratively develop your Web Service and that you have a working build.xml file that you can update with new information. Finally, it is assumed that you have a client application that invokes the non-secured Web Service. If these assumptions are not true, see:

To configure simple message-level security for a WebLogic Web Service:

Update your JWS file, adding WebLogic-specific @Policy and @Policies JWS annotations to specify the pre-packaged policy files that are attached to either the entire Web Service or to particular operations.

Create a private key and digital certificate pair, and load it into the client keystore. The same pair will be used to both digitally sign the client's SOAP request and encrypt the SOAP responses from WebLogic Server.

Ensuring That WebLogic Server Can Validate the Client's Certificate

You must ensure that WebLogic Server is able to validate the X.509 certificate that the client uses to digitally sign its SOAP request, and that WebLogic Server in turn uses to encrypt its SOAP responses to the client. Do one of the following:

Ensure that the client application obtains a digital certificate that WebLogic Server automatically trusts, because it has been issued by a trusted certificate authority.

Create a certificate registry which lists all the individual certificates trusted by WebLogic Server, and then ensure that the client uses one of these registered certificates.

Updating the JWS File with @Policy and @Policies Annotations

Use the @Policy and @Policies annotations in your JWS file to specify that the Web Service has one or more policy files attached to it. You can use these annotations at either the class or method level.

The @Policies annotation simply groups two or more @Policy annotations together. Use the @Policies annotation if you want to attach two or more policy files to the class or method. If you want to attach just one policy file, you can use @Policy on its own.

The @Policy annotation specifies a single policy file, where it is located, whether the policy applies to the request or response SOAP message (or both), and whether to attach the policy file to the public WSDL of the service.

Note:

As is true for all JWS annotations, the @Policy annotation cannot be overridden at runtime, which means that the policy file you specify at buildtime using the annotation will always be associated with the Web Service. This means, for example, that although you can view the associated policy file at runtime using the Administration Console, you cannot delete (unassociate) it. You can, however, associate additional policy files, as described in Associating Policy Files at Runtime Using the Administration Console.

Use the uri attribute to specify the location of the policy file, as described below:

To specify one of the pre-packaged security policy files that are installed with WebLogic Server, use the policy: prefix and the name of one of the policy files, as shown in the following example:

@Policy(uri="policy:Wssp1.2-2007-Https-BasicAuth.xml")

If you use the pre-packaged policy files, you do not have to create one yourself or package it in an accessible location. For this reason, Oracle recommends that you use the pre-packaged policy files whenever you can.

To specify a user-created policy file, specify the path (relative to the location of the JWS file) along with its name, as shown in the following example:

@Policy(uri="../policies/MyPolicy.xml")

In the example, the MyPolicy.xml file is located in the policies sibling directory of the one that contains the JWS file.

You can also specify a policy file that is located in a shared J2EE library; this method is useful if you want to share the file amongst multiple Web Services packaged in different J2EE archives.

Note:

In this case, it is assumed that the policy file is in the META-INF/policies or WEB-INF/policies directory of the shared J2EE library. Be sure, when you package the library, that you put the policy file in this directory.

To specify a policy file in a shared J2EE library, use the policy prefix and then the name of the policy file, as shown in the following example:

direction specifies whether the policy file should be applied to the request (inbound) SOAP message, the response (outbound) SOAP message, or both. The default value if you do not specify this attribute is both. The direction attribute accepts the following values:

Policy.Direction.both

Policy.Direction.inbound

Policy.Direction.outbound

attachToWsdl specifies whether the policy file should be attached to the WSDL file that describes the public contract of the Web Service. The default value of this attribute is false.

The following example shows how to use the @Policy and @Policies JWS annotations, with the relevant sections shown in bold:

In the example, security policy files are attached to the Web Service at the method level. The specified policy files are those pre-packaged with WebLogic Server, which means that the developers do not need to create their own files or package them in the corresponding archive.

The Wssp1.2-2007-SignBody.xml policy file specifies that the body and WebLogic system headers of both the request and response SOAP message be digitally signed. The Wssp1.2-2007-EncryptBody.xml policy file specifies that the body of both the request and response SOAP messages be encrypted.

Loading a Policy From the CLASSPATH

This release of WebLogic Server includes a 'load policy as resource from CLASSPATH' feature. This feature allows you to copy a policy file to the root directory of your Web application and then reference it directly by its name (for example, mypolicy.xml') from an @POLICY annotation in your JWS file.

To enable this feature, start WebLogic Server with -Dweblogic.wsee.policy.LoadFromClassPathEnabled=true

If you enable this feature, be aware of the following caveat: If you were to then move the policy file to the WEB-INF/policies directory, the same 'mypolicy.xml' reference in the @POLICY annotation will no longer work. You would need to add the policy prefix to the @POLICY annotation; for example, 'policy:mypolicy.xml'.

Using Key Pairs Other Than the Out-Of-The-Box SSL Pair

In the simple message-level configuration procedure, documented in Configuring Simple Message-Level Security: Main Steps, it is assumed that the Web Services runtime uses the private key and X.509 certificate pair that is provided out-of-the-box with WebLogic Server; this same key pair is also used by the core security subsystem for SSL and is provided mostly for demonstration and testing purposes. In production environments, the Web Services runtime typically uses its own two private key and digital certificate pairs, one for signing and one for encrypting SOAP messages.

The following procedure describes the additional steps you must take to enable this use case.

Obtain two private key and digital certificate pairs to be used by the Web Services runtime. One of the pairs is used for digitally signing the SOAP message and the other for encrypting it.

Although not required, Oracle recommends that you obtain two pairs that will be used only by WebLogic Web Services. You must also ensure that both of the certificate's key usage matches what you are configuring them to do. For example, if you are specifying that a certificate be used for encryption, be sure that the certificate's key usage is specified as for encryption or is undefined. Otherwise, the Web Services security runtime will reject the certificate.

Create, if one does not currently exist, a custom identity keystore for WebLogic Server and load the private key and digital certificate pairs you obtained in the preceding step into the identity keystore.

If you have already configured WebLogic Server for SSL, then you have already created an identity keystore which you can also use in this step.

Using the Administration Console, configure WebLogic Server to locate the keystore you created in the preceding step. If you are using a keystore that has already been configured for WebLogic Server, you do not need to perform this step.

Using the Administration Console, create the default Web Service security configuration, which must be named default_wss. The default Web Service security configuration is used by all Web Services in the domain unless they have been explicitly programmed to use a different configuration.

Update the default Web Services security configuration you created in the preceding step to use one of the private key and digital certificate pairs for digitally signing SOAP messages.

See "Specify the key pair used to sign SOAP messages" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Help. In the procedure, when you create the properties used to identify the keystore and key pair, enter the exact value for the Name of each property (such as IntegrityKeyStore, IntegrityKeyStorePassword, and so on), but enter the value that identifies your own previously-created keystore and key pair in the Value fields.

Similarly, update the default Web Services security configuration you created in a preceding step to use the second private key and digital certificate pair for encrypting SOAP messages.

See "Specify the key pair used to encrypt SOAP messages" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Help. In the procedure, when you create the properties used to identify the keystore and key pair, enter the exact value for the Name of each property (such as ConfidentialityKeyStore. ConfidentialityKeyStorePassword, and so on), but enter the value that identifies your own previously-created keystore and key pair in the Value fields.

Updating a Client Application to Invoke a Message-Secured Web Service

When you update your Java code to invoke a message-secured Web Service, you must load a private key and digital certificate pair from the client's keystore and pass this information, along with a username and password for user authentication if so required by the security policy, to the secure WebLogic Web Service being invoked.

If the security policy file of the Web Service specifies that the SOAP request must be encrypted, then the Web Services client runtime automatically gets the server's certificate from the policy file that is attached to the WSDL of the service, and uses it for the encryption. If, however, the policy file is not attached to the WSDL, or the entire WSDL itself is not available, then the client application must use a client-side copy of the policy file; for details, see Using a Client-Side Security Policy File.

Use the weblogic.security.SSL.TrustManager WebLogic security API to verify that the certificate used to encrypt the SOAP request is valid. The Web Services client runtime gets this certificate from the deployed WSDL of the Web Service, which in production situations is not automatically trusted, so the client application must ensure that it is okay before it uses it to encrypt the SOAP request:

This example shows the TrustManager API on the client side. The Web Service application must implement proper verification code to ensure security.

Invoking a Web Service From a Client Running in a WebLogic Server Instance

In the simple Web Services configuration procedure, described in Configuring Simple Message-Level Security: Main Steps, it is assumed that a stand-alone client application invokes the message-secured Web Service. Sometimes, however, the client is itself running in a WebLogic Server instance, as part of an EJB, a servlet, or another Web Service. In this case, you can use the core WebLogic Server security framework to configure the credential providers and trust manager so that your EJB, servlet, or JWS code contains only the simple invoke of the secured operation and no other security-related API usage.

The following procedure describes the high level steps you must perform to make use of the core WebLogic Server security framework in this use case.

In your EJB, servlet, or JWS code, invoke the Web Service operation as if it were not configured for message-level security. Specifically, do not create a CredentialProvider object that contains username or X.509 tokens, and do not use the TrustManager core security API to validate the certificate from the WebLogic Server hosting the secure Web Service. The reason you should not use these APIs in your client code is that the Web Services runtime will perform this work for you.

Using the Administration Console, configure the required credential mapping providers of the core security of the WebLogic Server instance that hosts your client application. The list of required credential mapper providers depends on the policy file that is attached to the Web Service you are invoking. Typically, you must configure the credential mapper providers for both username/password and X.509 certificates. See Valid Class Names and Token Types for Credential Provider for the possible values.

Note:

WebLogic Server includes a credential mapping provider for username/passwords and X.509. However, only username/password is configured by default.

You are not required to configure the core WebLogic Server security framework, as described in this procedure, if your client application does not want to use the out-of-the-box credential provider and trust manager. Rather, you can override all of this configuration by using the same APIs in your EJB, servlet, and JWS code as in the stand-alone Java code described in Using a Client-Side Security Policy File. However, using the core security framework standardizes the WebLogic Server configuration and simplifies the Java code of the client application that invokes the Web Service.

Example of Adding Security to a JAX-WS Web Service

This section provides a simple example of adding security to a JAX-WS Web Service. The example attaches four policies:

Creating and Using a Custom Policy File

Although WebLogic Server includes a number of pre-packaged Web Services security policy files that typically satisfy the security needs of most programmers, you can also create and use your own WS-SecurityPolicy file if you need additional configuration. See Using Policy Files for Message-Level Security Configuration for general information about security policy files and how they are used for message-level security configuration.

Note:

Use of element-level security always requires one or more custom policy files to specify the particular element path and name to be secured.

When you create a custom policy file, you can separate out the three main security categories (authentication, encryption, and signing) into three separate policy files, as do the pre-packaged files, or create a single policy file that contains all three categories. You can also create a custom policy file that changes just one category (such as authentication) and use the pre-packaged files for the other categories (Wssp1.2-2007-SignBody.xml, Wssp1.2-SignBody.xml and Wssp1.2-2007-EncryptBody, Wssp1.2-EncryptBody). In other words, you can mix and match the number and content of the policy files that you associate with a Web Service. In this case, however, you must always ensure yourself that the multiple files do not contradict each other.

Your custom policy file needs to comply with the standard format and assertions defined in WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2. Note, however, that this release of WebLogic Server does not completely implement WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2. For more information, see Unsupported WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 Assertions. The root element of your WS-SecurityPolicy file must be <Policy>.

Configuring the WS-Trust Client

Note:

In this release, WS-Trust is supported under JAX-RPC only.

WebLogic Server implements a WS-Trust client that retrieves security tokens from a Security Token Service (STS) for use in Web Services Security. This WS-Trust client is used internally by the client side WebLogic Server Web Service runtime.

You can configure the WS-Trust client as follows:

Through properties on the Web Service client stub for a standalone Web Service client.

Through MBean properties for a Web Service client running on the server.

In releases prior to 10g Release 3 (10.3) of WebLogic Server, the WS-Trust client could use only security tokens from an STS that was co-located with a Web Service and hosted by WebLogic Server. However, the STS now need only be accessible to the WS-Trust client; it does not need to be co-located.

The WS-Trust client in prior releases supported only WS-SecureConversation tokens. It now also supports SAML tokens.

Supported Token Types

Web Service Secure Conversation Language (WS-SecureConversation) and SAML tokens are supported. The tokens have the following namespace and URI:

Configuring WS-Trust Client Properties

You set some of the configuration properties specifically for the WS-Trust client; others are determined through configuration information generally present for a Web Service client. For example, the type of token retrieved is determined by the security policy of the Web Service that the Web Service client is invoking.

The properties that you can explicitly set and the token type they apply to are as follows. Subsequent sections show how to set these properties.

STS URI (WS-SecureConversation and SAML)

STS security policy (SAML)

STS SOAP version (SAML)

STS WS-Trust version (SAML)

Obtaining the URI of the Secure Token Service

There are three sources from which the WS-Trust client can obtain the URI of the secure token service (STS). The order of precedence is as follows:

The URI for the STS, as contained in the sp:Issuer/wsa:Address element of the token assertion in the Web Service's security policy.

A configured STS URI.

The co-located STS URI. This is the default if there is no other source (WS-SecureConversation only).

Note:

The URI for the STS, as contained in the sp:IssuedToken/sp:Issuer/wsa:Address element of the token assertion in the Web service's security policy is not supported in this release. For example, the following assertion for STS URI is not supported:

You also need to configure the SOAP version if it is different from the SOAP version of the target Web Service for which you generated the standalone client. (See Interface SOAPConstants (http://java.sun.com/javaee/5/docs/api/javax/xml/soap/SOAPConstants.html) for the definitions of the constants.) The supported values for WSEESecurityConstants.TRUST_SOAP_VERSION are as follows:

Example 2-7 shows an example of setting the WS-Trust and SOAP versions.

Example 2-7 Setting the WS-Trust and SOAP Versions

// set WS-Trust version
stub._setProperty(WSEESecurityConstants.TRUST_VERSION, "http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ws-trust/200512");
// set SOAP version
stub._setProperty(WSEESecurityConstants.TRUST_SOAP_VERSION, SOAPConstants.URI_NS_SOAP_1_1_ENVELOPE);

It is recommended that you use the pre-packaged files if you want to configure security contexts, because these security policy files provide most of the required functionality and typical default values. See WS-SecureConversation Policies for more information about these files.

Code or configure your application to use the policy through policy annotations, policy attached to the application's WSDL, or runtime policy configuration.

Specification Backward Compatibility

WebLogic Web Services implement the Web Services Trust (WS-Trust 1.3) and Web Services Secure Conversation (WS-SecureConversation 1.3) specifications. Take note of the following differences from the WS-SecureConversation version of 02/2005:

The Web Services Secure Conversation (WS-SecureConversation 1.3) specification requires a token service to return wst:RequestSecurityToken to the initiating party in response to a wst:RequestSecurityToken. One or more wst:RequestSecurityTokenResponse elements are contained within a single wst:RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollection.

This differs from the previous version of the specification, in which wst:RequestSecurityTokenResponse was returned by the token service.

The token service can return wst:RequestSecurityTokenResponse if the service policy specifies the SC10SecurityContextToken, as described in the next bullet item.

The WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 Errata document describes the following change to SecureConversationToken Assertion:

<sp:SC10SecurityContextToken />

changes to

<sp:SC13SecurityContextToken />

sp:SC10SecurityContextToken continues to be supported only when used with the WS-SecureConversation version of 02/2005.

WS-SecureConversation and Clusters

WS-SecureConversation is pinned to a particular WebLogic Server instance in the cluster. If a SecureConversation request lands in the wrong server, it is automatically rerouted to the correct server. If the server instance hosting the WS-SecureConversation fails, the SecureConversation will not be available until the server instance is brought up again.

Updating a Client Application to Negotiate Security Contexts

A client application that negotiates security contexts when invoking a Web Service is similar to a standard client application that invokes a message-secured Web Service, as described in Using a Client-Side Security Policy File. The only real difference is that you can use the weblogic.wsee.security.wssc.utils.WSSCClientUtil API to explicitly cancel the secure context token.

Note:

WebLogic Server provides the WSSCCLientUtil API for your convenience only; the Web Services runtime automatically cancels the secure context token when the configured timeout is reached. Use the API only if you want to have more control over when the token is cancelled.

Example 2-8 shows a simple example of a client application invoking a Web Service that is associated with a pre-packaged security policy file that enables secure conversations; the sections in bold which are relevant to security contexts are discussed after the example:

Use the terminateWssc() method of the WSSClientUtil class to terminate the secure context token:

WSSCClientUtil.terminateWssc(stub);

Associating Policy Files at Runtime Using the Administration Console

The simple message-level configuration procedure, documented in Configuring Simple Message-Level Security: Main Steps, describes how to use the @Policy and @Policies JWS annotations in the JWS file that implements your Web Service to specify one or more policy files that are associated with your service. This of course implies that you must already know, at the time you program your Web Service, which policy files you want to associate with your Web Service and its operations. This might not always be possible, which is why you can also associate policy files at runtime, after the Web Service has been deployed, using the Administration Console.

You can use no @Policy or @Policies JWS annotations at all in your JWS file and associate policy files only at runtime using the Administration Console, or you can specify some policy files using the annotations and then associate additional ones at runtime. However, once you associate a policy file using the JWS annotations, you cannot change this association at runtime using the Administration Console.

At runtime, the Administration Console allows you to associate as many policy files as you want with a Web Service and its operations, even if the policy assertions in the files contradict each other or contradict the assertions in policy files associated with the JWS annotations. It is up to you to ensure that multiple associated policy files work together. If any contradictions do exist, WebLogic Server returns a runtime error when a client application invokes the Web Service operation.

To use the Console to associate one or more WS-Policy files to a Web Service, the WS-Policy XML files must be located in either the META-INF/policies or WEB-INF/policies directory of the EJB JAR file (for EJB implemented Web Services) or WAR file (for Java class implemented Web Services), respectively.

Using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Tokens For Identity

The SAML Token Profile 1.1 (http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/v1.1/wss-v1.1-spec-os-SAMLTokenProfile.pdf) is part of the core set of WS-Security standards, and specifies how SAML assertions can be used for Web Services security. WebLogic Server supports SAML Token Profile 1.1, including support for SAML 2.0 and SAML 1.1 assertions. SAML Token Profile 1.1 is backwards compatible with SAML Token Profile 1.0.

Note:

SAML Token Profile 1.1 is supported only through WS-SecurityPolicy.

Previous releases of WebLogic Server, released before the formulation of the WS-SecurityPolicy specification, used security policy files written under the WS-Policy specification, using a proprietary schema for security policy. These earlier security policy files support SAML Token Profile 1.0 and SAML 1.1 only.

Use of SAML tokens works server-to-server. This means that the client application is running inside of a WebLogic Server instance and then invokes a Web Service running in another WebLogic Server instance using SAML for identity. Because the client application is itself a Web Service, the Web Services security runtime takes care of all the SAML processing.

In addition to this server-to-server usage, you can also use SAML tokens from a standalone client via WS-Trust, as described in Configuring the WS-Trust Client.

You will need to configure both SAML 1.1 and SAML 2.0 security providers if you want to enable both versions of SAML for use with the SAML Token Profile.

When configuring SAML 2.0 partner entries, you must use the endpoint URL of the target Web Service as the name of the partner for both WSSIdPPartner and WSSSPPartner entries. Specify the URL as HTTPS if SSL will be used.

If you will be using policies that involve signatures related to SAML assertions (for example, SAML Holder-of-Key policies) where a key referenced by the assertion is used to sign the message, or Sender-Vouches policies where the sender's key is used to sign the message, you need to configure keys and certificates for signing and verification.

For the Holder-of-Key scenarios, the signature from the client certificate is to prove that the client has possession of the private key that the SAML token references. For the Sender Vouches scenarios, the signature from the client certificate is to guarantee that the message with the SAML token is generated by the sender.

Note:

These keys and certificates are not used to create or verify signatures on the assertions themselves. Creating and verifying signatures on assertions is done using keys and certificates configured on the SAML security providers.

If you are using SAML Bearer policies, protection is provided by SSL and the PKI Credential Mapping provider is not needed.

If you are using SAML tokens from a standalone client via WS-TRUST, the tokens are passed in via the Web Service client stub, not via the PKI Credential Mapping provider.

Configure a PKI Credential Mapping provider on the sending side, and populate it with the keys and certificates to be used for signing. setKeypairCredential creates a keypair mapping between the principalName, resourceid and credential action and the keystore alias and the corresponding password.

The first (String) parameter is used to construct a Resource object that represents the endpoint of the target Web Service. The userName parameter is the user on whose behalf the signed Web Service message will be generated. The alias and passphrase parameters are the alias and passphrase used to retrieve the key/certificate from the keystore configured for the PKI Credential Mapping provider. The actual key and certificate should be loaded into the keystore before creating the KeypairCredential.

Add the same certificates to the Certificate Registry on the receiving side, so they can be validated by the Web Service security runtime:

reg.registerCertificate(certalias, certfile)

Specifying the SAML Confirmation Method

The WS-SecurityPolicy implies, but does not explicitly specify, the confirmation method for SAML assertions. Consider the following general guidelines:

If the SamlToken assertion is inside either <sp:AsymerticBinding> or <sp:SymerticBinding>, then the Holder of Key confirmation method is used.

See Table 2-1 for examples of policies that use Holder of Key confirmation.

If the SamlToken assertion is inside <sp:SignedSupportingTokens> then the Sender Vouches confirmation method is used.

See Table 2-1 for examples of policies that use Sender Vouches confirmation.

Specifying the SAML Confirmation Method (Proprietary Policy Only)

This section describes how to specify the SAML confirmation method in a policy file that uses the proprietary schema for security policy.

Note:

SAML V1.1 and V2.0 assertions use <saml:SubjectConfirmation> and <saml2:SubjectConfimation> elements, respectively, to specify the confirmation method; the confirmation method is not directly specified in the policy file.

When you configure a Web Service to require SAML tokens for identity, you can specify one of the following confirmation methods:

Create a <SecurityToken> child element of the <Integrity><SupportedTokens> elements and set the TokenType attribute to a value that indicates SAML token usage.

The reason you put the SAML token in the <Integrity> assertion for the holder-of-key confirmation method is that the Web Service runtime must prove the integrity of the message, which is not required by sender-vouches.

Add a <Claims><Confirmationmethod> child element of <SecurityToken> and specify holder-of-key.

By default, the WebLogic Web Services runtime always validates the X.509 certificate specified in the <KeyInfo> assertion of any associated WS-Policy file. To disable this validation when using SAML holder-of-key assertions, you must configure the Web Service security configuration associated with the Web service by setting a property on the SAML token handler. See "Disable X.509 certificate validation when using SAML holder_of_key assertions" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Help for information on how to do this using the Administration Console.

Update the appropriate @Policy annotations in the JWS file that implements the Web Service to point to the security policy file from the preceding step. For example, if you want invokes of all the operations of a Web Service to SAML for identity, specify the @Policy annotation at the class-level.

You can mix and match the policy files that you associate with a Web Service, as long as they do not contradict each other and as long as you do not combine OASIS WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 files with security policy files written under Oracle's security policy schema.

For example, you can create a simple MyAuth.xml file that contains only the <Identity> security assertion to specify use of SAML for identity and then associate it with the Web Service together with the pre-packaged Wssp1.2-2007-EncryptBody.xml and Wssp1.2-2007-SignBody.xml files. It is, however, up to you to ensure that multiple associated policy files do not contradict each other; if they do, you will either receive a runtime error or the Web Service might not behave as you expect.

Recompile and redeploy your Web Service as part of the normal iterative development process.

Associating a Web Service with a Security Configuration Other Than the Default

Many use cases previously discussed require you to use the Administration Console to create the default Web Service security configuration called default_wss. After you create this configuration, it is applied to all Web Services that either do not use the @weblogic.jws.security.WssConfiguration JWS annotation or specify the annotation with no attribute.

There are some cases, however, in which you might want to associate a Web Service with a security configuration other than the default; such use cases include specifying different timestamp values for different services.

To associate a Web Service with a security configuration other than the default:

All Web Services security configurations are required to specify the same password digest use. Inconsistent password digest use in different Web Service security configurations will result in a runtime error.

Valid Class Names and Token Types for Credential Provider

When you create a security configuration, you need to supply the class name of the credential provider for this configuration. The valid class names and token types you can use are as follows:

weblogic.wsee.security.bst.ClientBSTCredentialProvider. The token type is x509.

weblogic.wsee.security.unt.ClientUNTCredentialProvider. The token type is ut.

weblogic.wsee.security.wssc.v13.sct.ClientSCCredentialProvider. The token type is sct.

weblogic.wsee.security.wssc.v200502.sct.ClientSCCredentialProvider. The token type is sct.

weblogic.wsee.security.saml.SAMLTrustCredentialProvider. The token type is saml.

Using System Properties to Debug Message-Level Security

The following table lists the system properties you can set to debug problems with your message-secured Web Service.

Using a Client-Side Security Policy File

The section Using Policy Files for Message-Level Security Configuration describes how a WebLogic Web Service can be associated with one or more security policy files that describe the message-level security of the Web Service. These policy files are XML files that describe how a SOAP message should be digitally signed or encrypted and what sort of user authentication is required from a client that invokes the Web Service. Typically, the policy file associated with a Web Service is attached to its WSDL, which the Web Services client runtime reads to determine whether and how to digitally sign and encrypt the SOAP message request from an operation invoke from the client application.

Sometimes, however, a Web Service might not attach the policy file to its deployed WSDL or the Web Service might be configured to not expose its WSDL at all. In these cases, the Web Services client runtime cannot determine from the service itself the security that must be enabled for the SOAP message request. Rather, it must load a client-side copy of the policy file. This section describes how to update a client application to load a local copy of a policy file.

Example 2-4 shows an example of using a client-side policy file from a JAX-WS Web Service.

The client-side policy file is typically exactly the same as the one associated with a deployed Web Service. If the two files are different, and there is a conflict in the security assertions contained in the files, then the invoke of the Web Service operation returns an error.

You can specify that the client-side policy file be associated with the SOAP message request, response, or both. Additionally, you can specify that the policy file be associated with the entire Web Service, or just one of its operations.

Associating a Policy File with a Client Application: Main Steps

The following procedure describes the high-level steps to associate a security policy file with the client application that invokes a Web Service operation.

It is assumed that you have created the client application that invokes a deployed Web Service, and that you want to update it by associating a client-side policy file. It is also assumed that you have set up an Ant-based development environment and that you have a working build.xml file that includes a target for running the clientgen Ant task.

Create the client-side security policy files and save them in a location accessible by the client application. Typically, the security policy files are the same as those configured for the Web Service you are invoking, but because the server-side files are not exposed to the client runtime, the client application must load its own local copies.

When you next run the client application, it will load local copies of the policy files that the Web Service client runtime uses to enable security for the SOAP request message.

Note:

If you have a Web Services operation that already have a security policy (for example, one that was set in the WSDL file that was stored when generating the client from the server policy), then when you use this procedure to programmatically set the client-side security policy, all previously-existing policies will be removed.

Updating clientgen to Generate Methods That Load Policy Files

For JAX-RPC, set the generatePolicyMethods attribute of the clientgen Ant task to true to specify that the Ant task should generate additional getXXX() methods in the implementation of the JAX-RPC Service interface for loading client-side copies of policy files when you get a port, as shown in the following example:

For JAX-WS, you use the weblogic.jws.jaxws.ClientPolicyFeature class to override the effective policy defined for a service. weblogic.jws.jaxws.ClientPolicyFeature extends javax.xml.ws.WebServiceFeature.

Updating a Client Application To Load Policy Files (JAX-RPC Only)

When you set generatePolicyMethods="true" for clientgen, the Ant task generates additional methods in the implementation of the JAX-RPC Service interface that you can use to load policy files, where XXX refers to the name of the Web Service.

You can use either an Array or Set of policy files to associate multiple files to a Web Service. If you want to associate just a single policy file, create a single-member Array or Set.

Loads two different sets of client-side policy files from InputStreams and associates the first set to the SOAP request and the second set to the SOAP response. Applies to a specific operation, as specified by the first parameter.

Loads two different arrays of client-side policy files from InputStreams and associates the first array to the SOAP request and the second array to the SOAP response. Applies to a specific operation, as specified by the first parameter.

Loads two different sets of client-side policy files from InputStreams and associates the first set to the SOAP request and the second set to the SOAP response. Applies to all operations of the Web Service.

Loads two different arrays of client-side policy files from InputStreams and associates the first array to the SOAP request and the second array to the SOAP response. Applies to all operations of the Web Service.

Use these methods, rather than the normal getXXXPort() method with no parameters, for getting a Web Service port and specifying at the same time that invokes of all, or the specified, operation using that port have an associated policy file or files.

Note:

The following methods from a previous release of WebLogic Server have been deprecated; if you want to associate a single client-side policy file, specify a single-member Array or Set and use the corresponding method described above.

getXXXPort(java.io.InputStream policyInputStream);

Loads a single client-side policy file from an InputStream and applies it to both the SOAP request (inbound) and response (outbound) messages.

The second and third argument to the client application are the two policy files from which the application makes an array of FileInputStreams (inbound_policy_array and outbound_policy_array). The normal_port uses the standard parameterless method for getting a port; the array_of_policy_port, however, uses one of the policy methods to specify that an invoke of the sayHello operation using the port has multiple policy files (specified with an Array of FileInputStream) associated with both the inbound and outbound SOAP request and response:

Using WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 Policy Files

WebLogic Server includes a number of WS-SecurityPolicy files you can use in most Web Services applications. The policy files are located in MW_HOME/WL_HOME/server/lib/weblogic.jar. Within weblogic.jar, the policy files are located in /weblogic/wsee/policy/runtime.

There are two sets of these policies. In most of the cases, they perform identical functions, but the policy uses different namespace.

The first set has a prefix of "Wssp1.2-2007-". These security policy files conform to the OASIS WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 specification and have the following namespace:

Oracle recommends that you use the new policy namespace, as those are official namespaces from OASIS standards and they will perform better when interoperating with other vendors. The old policies having the prefix of "Wssp1.2-" are mainly for users who want to interoperate with existing applications that already use this version of the policies.

The following sections describe the available WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 policy files:

In addition, see Choosing a Policy and Configuring Smart Policy Selection for information about how to choose the best security policy approach for your Web Services implementation and for information about WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 elements that are not supported in this release of WebLogic Server.

Transport Level Policies

These policies require use of the https protocol to access WSDL and invoke Web Services operations:

Table 2-3 Transport Level Policies

Policy File

Description

Wssp1.2-2007-Https.xml

One way SSL.

Wssp1.2-2007-Https-BasicAuth.xml

One way SSL with Basic Authentication. A 401 challenge occurs if the Authorization header is not present in the request.

Wssp1.2-2007-Https-ClientCertReq.xml

Two way SSL. The recipient checks for the initiator's public certificate. Note that the client certificate can be used for authentication.

Wssp1.2-2007-Https-UsernameToken-Digest.xml

One way SSL with digest Username Token.

Wssp1.2-2007-Https-UsernameToken-Plain.xml

One way SSL with plain text Username Token.

Wssp1.2-Https.xml

One way SSL.

Wssp1.2-Https-BasicAuth.xml

One way SSL with Basic Authentication. A 401 challenge occurs if the Authorization header is not present in the request.

Wssp1.2-Https-UsernameToken-Digest.xml

One way SSL with digest Username Token.

Wssp1.2-Https-UsernameToken-Plain.xml

One way SSL with plain text Username Token.

Wssp1.2-Https-ClientCertReq.xml

Two way SSL. The recipient checks for the initiator's public certificate. Note that the client certificate can be used for authentication.

Protection Assertion Policies

Protection assertions are used to identify what is being protected and the level of protection provided. Protection assertion policies cannot be used alone; they should be used only in combination with X.509 Token Policies. For example, you might use Wssp1.2-2007-Wss1.1-X509-Basic256.xml together with Wssp1.2-2007-SignBody.xml. The following policy files provide for the protection of message parts by signing or encryption:

Table 2-4 Protection Assertion Policies

Policy File

Description

Wssp1.2-2007-SignBody.xml

All message body parts are signed.

Wssp1.2-2007-EncryptBody.xml

All message body parts are encrypted.

Wssp1.2-2007-Sign-Wsa-Headers.xml

WS-Addressing headers are signed.

Wssp1.2-SignBody.xml

All message body parts are signed.

Wssp1.2-EncryptBody.xml

All message body parts are encrypted.

Wssp1.2-Sign-Wsa-Headers.xml

WS-Addressing headers are signed.

WS-Security 1.0 Username and X509 Token Policies

The following policies support the Username Token or X.509 Token specifications of WS-Security 1.0:

Table 2-5 WS-Security 1.0 Policies

Policy File

Description

Wssp1.2-2007-Wss1.0-X509-Basic256.xml

Mutual Authentication with X.509 Certificates. The message is signed and encrypted on both request and response. The algorithm of Basic256 should be used for both sides.

Wssp1.2-2007-Wss1.0-UsernameToken-Digest-X509-Basic256.xml

Username token with digested password is sent in the request for authentication. The encryption method is Basic256.

Wssp1.2-2007-Wss1.0-UsernameToken-Plain-X509-Basic256.xml

Username token with plain text password is sent in the request for authentication, signed with the client's private key and encrypted with server's public key. The client also signs the request body and includes its public certificate, protected by the signature in the message. The server signs the response body with its private key and sends its public certificate in the message. Both request and response messages include signed time stamps. The encryption method is Basic256.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.0-UsernameToken-Plain-X509-Basic256.xml

Username token with plain text password is sent in the request for authentication, signed with the client's private key and encrypted with server's public key. The client also signs the request body and includes its public certificate, protected by the signature in the message. The server signs the response body with its private key and sends its public certificate in the message. Both request and response messages include signed time stamps. The encryption method is Basic256.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.0-UsernameToken-Plain-X509-TripleDesRsa15.xml

Username token with plain text password is sent in the request for authentication, signed with the client's private key and encrypted with server's public key. The client also signs the request body and includes its public certificate, protected by the signature in the message. The server signs the response body with its private key and sends its public certificate in the message. Both request and response messages include signed time stamps. The encryption method is TripleDes.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.0-UsernameToken-Digest-X509-Basic256.xml

Username token with digested password is sent in the request for authentication. The encryption method is Basic256.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.0-UsernameToken-Digest-X509-TripleDesRsa15.xml

Username token with digested password is sent in the request for authentication. The encryption method is TripleDes.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.0-X509-Basic256.xml

Mutual Authentication with X.509 Certificates. The message is signed and encrypted on both request and response. The algorithm of Basic256 should be used for both sides.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.0-X509-TripleDesRsa15.xml

Mutual Authentication with X.509 Certificates and message is signed and encrypted on both request and response. The algorithm of TripleDes should be used for both sides

Wssp1.2-Wss1.0-X509-EncryptRequest-SignResponse.xml

This policy is used where only the server has X.509v3 certificates (and public-private key pairs). The request is encrypted and the response is signed.

WS-Security 1.1 Username and X509 Token Policies

The following policies support the Username Token or X.509 Token specifications of WS-Security 1.1:

This policy is similar to policy Wssp1.2-Wss1.0-X509-Basic256.xml except it uses additional WS-Security 1.1 features, including Signature Confirmation and Thumbprint key reference.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-EncryptedKey.xml

This is a symmetric binding policy that uses the WS-Security 1.1 Encrypted Key feature for both signature and encryption. It also uses WS-Security 1.1 features, including Signature Confirmation and Thumbprint key reference.

This policy has all of the features defined in policy Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-EncryptedKey.xml, and in addition it uses sender's key to endorse the message signature. The endorsing key is also signed with the message signature.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-DK.xml

This policy has all of features defined in policy Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-EncryptedKey.xml, except that instead of using an encrypted key, the request is signed using DerivedKeyToken1, then encrypted using a DerivedKeyToken2. Response is signed using DerivedKeyToken3, and encrypted using DerivedKeyToken4.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-DK-X509-Endorsing.xml

This policy has all features defined in policy Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-DK.xml, and in addition it uses the sender's key to endorse the message signature.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-X509-EncryptRequest-SignResponse.xml

This policy is similar to policy Wssp1.2-Wss1.0-X509-EncryptRequest-SignResponse.xml, except that it uses additional WSS 1.1 features, including Signature Confirmation and Thumbprint key reference.

Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-X509-SignRequest-EncryptResponse.xml

This policy is the reverse of policy Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-X509-EncryptRequest-SignResponse.xml: the request is signed and the response is encrypted.

WS-SecureConversation Policies

The following policies implement WS-SecureConversation 1.3 and WS-SecureConversation 2005/2:

Table 2-7 WS-SecureConversation Policies

Policy File

Description

Wssp1.2-2007-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Https-BasicAuth.xml

One way SSL with Basic Authentication. Timestamp is included. The algorithm suite is Basic256. The signature is encrypted.

Wssp1.2-2007-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Https-ClientCertReq.xml

Two way SSL. The recipient checks for the initiator's public certificate. Note that the client certificate can be used for authentication.

Wssp1.2-2007-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Https-UNT.xml

SSL Username token authentication.

Wssp1.2-2007-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Https.xml

WS-SecureConversation handshake (RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollection messages) occurs in https transport. The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys. The signature is also encrypted.

Wssp1.2-2007-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Wss1.0.xml

WS-SecureConversation handshake is protected by WS-Security 1.0. The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys. The soap:Body of the RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollection messages are both signed and encrypted. The WS-Addressing headers are signed. Timestamp is included and signed. The signature is encrypted. The algorithm suite is Basic256.

Wssp1.2-2007-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Wss1.1.xml

WS-SecureConversation handshake is protected by WS-Security 1.1. The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys. The soap:Body of the RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollection messages are both signed and encrypted. The WS-Addressing headers are signed. Signature and encryption use derived keys from an encrypted key.

Wssp1.2-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Https-BasicAuth.xml

One way SSL with Basic Authentication. Timestamp is included. The algorithm suite is Basic256. The signature is encrypted.

Wssp1.2-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Https-ClientCertReq.xml

Two way SSL. The recipient checks for the initiator's public certificate. Note that the client certificate can be used for authentication.

Wssp1.2-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Https.xml

WS-SecureConversation handshake (RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollection messages) occurs in https transport. The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys. The signature is also encrypted.

Wssp1.2-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Wss1.0.xml

WS-SecureConversation handshake is protected by WS-Security 1.0. The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys. The soap:Body of the RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollection messages are both signed and encrypted. The WS-Addressing headers are signed. Timestamp is included and signed. The signature is encrypted. The algorithm suite is Basic256.

Wssp1.2-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Wss1.1.xml

WS-SecureConversation handshake is protected by WS-Security 1.1. The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys. The soap:Body of the RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollection messages are both signed and encrypted. The WS-Addressing headers are signed. Signature and encryption use derived keys from an encrypted key.

Wssp1.2-Wssc200502-Bootstrap-Https.xml

WS-SecureConversation handshake (RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponse messages) occurs in https transport. The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys.

Wssp1.2-Wssc200502-Bootstrap-Wss1.0.xml

WS-SecureConversation handshake is protected by WS-Security 1.0. The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys. The soap:Body of the RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponse messages are both signed and encrypted. The WS-Addressing headers are signed. Timestamp is included and signed. The algorithm suite is Basic128.

Wssp1.2-Wssc200502-Bootstrap-Wss1.1.xml

WS-SecureConversation handshake is protected by WS-Security 1.1. The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys. The soap:Body of the RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponse messages are both signed and encrypted. The WS-Addressing headers are signed. Signature and encryption use derived keys from an encrypted key.

SAML Token Profile Policies

WebLogic Server Version 10.3 supported SAML Holder of Key for the inbound request only. As of WebLogic Server Version 10.3MP1 and later, both the request and response messages are protected.

Table 2-8 WS-Security SAML Token Profile Policies

Policy File

Description

Wssp1.2-2007-Saml1.1-SenderVouches-Wss1.0.xml

The message is signed and encrypted on both request and response with WSS1.0 asymmetric binding. SAML 1.1 token is sent in the request for authentication with Sender Vouches confirmation method, signed by the X509 token.

Wssp1.2-2007-Saml1.1-SenderVouches-Wss1.1.xml

The message is signed and encrypted on both request and response with WSS1.1 X509 symmetric binding. SAML 1.1 token is sent in the request for authentication with Sender Vouches confirmation method, signed by the X509 token.

Wssp1.2-2007-Saml2.0-SenderVouches-Wss1.1.xml

The message is signed and encrypted on both request and response with WSS1.1 X509 symmetric binding. SAML 2.0 token is sent in the request for authentication with Sender Vouches confirmation method, signed by the X509 token.

Wssp1.2-2007-Saml2.0-SenderVouches-Wss1.1-Asymmetric.xml

The message is signed and encrypted on both request and response with WSS1.1 asymmetric binding. It uses additional WS-Security 1.1 features, including Signature Confirmation and Thumbprint key reference. SAML 2.0 token is sent in the request for authentication with Sender Vouches confirmation method, signed by the X509 token.

Wssp1.2-2007-Saml1.1-HolderOfKey-Wss1.0.xml

The message is signed and encrypted on both request and response with WSS1.0 asymmetric binding. SAML 1.1 token is sent in the request for authentication with Holder of Key confirmation method, in which the key inside the SAML Token is used for the signature.

Wssp1.2-2007-Saml1.1-HolderOfKey-Wss1.1-Asymmetric.xml

The message is signed and encrypted on both request and response with WSS1.1 asymmetric binding. It uses additional WS-Security 1.1 features, including Signature Confirmation and Thumbprint key reference. SAML 1.1 token is sent in the request for authentication with Holder of Key confirmation method, in which the key inside the SAML Token is used for the signature.

Wssp1.2-2007-Saml2.0-HolderOfKey-Wss1.1-Asymmetric.xml

The message is signed and encrypted on both request and response with WSS1.1 asymmetric binding. It uses additional WS-Security 1.1 features, including Signature Confirmation and Thumbprint key reference. SAML 2.0 token is sent in the request for authentication with Holder of Key confirmation method, in which the key inside the SAML Token is used for the signature.

To interoperate with other products that do not support SAML 2.0, for the SAML-over-HTTPS scenario, the sender vouches confirmation method is recommended.

Use the Wssp1.2-2007-Saml1.1-SenderVouches-Https.xml policy for this purpose, instead of using SAML 1.1 Bearer.

Choosing a Policy

WebLogic Server's implementation of WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 makes a wide variety of security policy alternatives available to you. When choosing a security policy for your Web Service, you should consider your requirements in these areas:

In the example, specifying the Username Token for authorization is optional. The client can continue if it cannot generate the Username Token because the user is anonymous or when there is no security context.

During the Security Policy enforcement process, the message is not rejected if the missing element has the Policy assertion with the attribute of wsp:Optional="true".

The following security policy assertions are now supported by the Optional policy assertion:

Username Token

SAML Token

Signature parts or signature elements

Encryption parts or encryption elements

Derive Key Token

Configuring Element-Level Security

WebLogic Server supports the element-level assertions defined in WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2. These assertions allow you to apply a signature or encryption to selected elements within the SOAP request or response message, enabling you to target only the specific data in the message that requires security and thereby reduce the computational requirements.

In addition, the assertion RequiredElements allows you to ensure that the message contains a specific header element.

Because each of these assertions identifies one or more particular elements in Web Service message, you must use custom security policy files for all element-level security assertions. These custom policy files are typically combined with pre-packaged security policy files, with the pre-packaged files defining the way that signing or encryption is performed, and the custom policy files identifying the particular elements that are to be signed or encrypted.

Define and Use a Custom Element-Level Policy File

The first step is to determine the XPath expression that identifies the target element. To do this, you need to understand the format of the SOAP messages used by your web service, either through direct inspection or via analysis of the service's WSDL and XML Schema.

How you determine the format of the SOAP message, and therefore the required XPath expression, is heavily dependent on the tools you have available and is outside the scope of this document. For example, you might do the following:

Run the Web Service without element-level security.

Turn on SOAP tracing.

Inspect the SOAP message in the logs.

Produce the XPath expression from the SOAP message.

Or, you might have a software tool that allows you to produce a sample SOAP request for a given WSDL, and then use it to generate the XPath expression.

Consider the example of a Web Service that has a "submitOrderRequest" operation that will receive a SOAP request of the form shown in Example 2-10.

The sections in bold will be later used to construct the custom element-level policy.

Assume that you require that the <ns1:creditCard> element and its child elements be encrypted. To do this, you use the information obtained from the bold sections of Example 2-10 to create a custom security policy file, perhaps called EncryptCreditCard.xml.

The root element must be <wsp:Policy> with the prefix (in this case wsp) mapping to the full WS-Policy namespace.

The assertion (in this case EncryptedElements) must also be namespace-qualified with the full WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 namespace, as indicated by the "sp" prefix.

The creditCard element in the SOAP message is namespace-qualified (via the ns1 prefix), and has parent elements: OrderRequest, submitOrderRequest, Body, and Envelope. Each of these elements is namespace-qualified.

The XPath query (beginning with /soapenv:Envelope…) matches the location of the creditCard element:

The namespace prefixes in the SOAP message need not match the prefixes in the custom security policy file. It is important only that the full namespaces to which the prefixes map are the same in both the message and policy assertion.

Because the creditCard element is present in the SOAP request, but not the response, the code fragment configures the EncryptedElements custom policy only in the "inbound" direction.

Implementation Notes

Keep the following considerations in mind when implementing element-level security:

You can include multiple element-level assertions in a policy; all are executed.

You can include multiple <sp:XPath> expressions in a single assertions; all are executed.

The EncryptedElements assertion causes the identified element and all of its children to be encrypted.

The ContentEncryptedElements assertion does not encrypt the identified element, but does encrypt all of its children.

The RequiredElements assertion may be used to test for the presence of a top-level element in the SOAP header. If the element is not found, a SOAP Fault will be raised.

RequiredElements assertions cannot be used to test for elements in the SOAP Body.

Smart Policy Selection

Multiple policy alternatives for any given Web Service are supported, which provides the service with significant flexibility.

Consider that a Web Service might support any of the following:

Different versions of the standard. For example, the Web Service might allow WSRM 1.0 and WSRM 1.1, WSS1.0 and WSS 1.1, WSSC 1.1 and WWSSC 1.2, SAML 1.1 or SAML 2.0.

Different credentials for authentication. For example, the Web Service might allow either username token, X509, or SAML token for authentication.

Different security requirements for internal and external clients. For example, external authentication might require a SAML token, while internal employee authentication requires only a username token for authentication.

The Web Services client can also handle multiple policy alternatives. The same client can interoperate with different services that have different policy or policy alternatives.

For example, the same client can talk to one service that requires SAML 1.1 Token Profile 1.0 for authentication, while another service requires SAML 2.0 Token Profile 1.1 for authentication.

Example of Security Policy With Policy Alternatives

Example 2-13 shows an example of a security policy that supports both WS-Security 1.0 and WS-Security 1.1.

Note:

Within the <wsp:ExactlyOne> element, each policy alternative is encapsulated within a <wsp:All> element.

Configuring Smart Policy Selection

You can configure multiple policy alternatives for a single Web Service by creating a custom policy, as shown in Example 2-13. You then configure the Web Service client to make a policy selection preference.

In this release of WebLogic Server, you can configure the policy selection preferences for the Web Service client by using the WebLogic Server Administration Console, and via stubs.

The following preferences are supported:

Security

Performance

Compatibility

How the Policy Preference is Determined

The Web Services runtime uses your policy selection preference to examine the policy alternatives and select the best choice.

If there are multiple policy choices, the system uses the configured preference list, the availability of the credential, and setting of the optional function to determine the best selection policy.

If multiple policy alternatives exist for a client, the following selection rules are used:

If the preference is not set, the first policy alternative will be picked, except if the policy alternative is defined as wsp:optional=true.

If the preference is set to security first, then the policy that has the most security features is selected.

If the preference is set to compatibility/interop first, then the policy that has the lowest version is selected.

If the preference is set to performance first, then the policy with the fewest security features is selected.

For the optional policy assertions, the following selection rules are used:

If the default policy selection preference is set, then the optional attribute on any assertion is ignored.

If the Compatibility or Performance preference is set, then any assertion with an optional attribute is ignored; therefore the assertion is ignored.

If the security policy selection preference is set, optional assertions are included and alternative assertions are never generated.

Configuring Smart Policy Selection in the Console

Perform the following steps to configure smart policy selection in the Console:

Edit the Web Services security configuration. On the General tab, set the Policy Selection Preference. The following values are supported:

None (default)

Security then Compatibility then Performance (SCP)

Security then Performance then Compatibility (SPC)

Compatibility then Security then Performance (CSP)

Compatibility then Performance then Security (CPS)

Performance then Compatibility then Security (PCS)

Performance then Security then Compatibility (PSC

Save and activate your changes.

Understanding Body Encryption in Smart Policy

In smart policy selection scenarios, whether or not the Body will be encrypted (for example, <sp:EncryptedParts> <sp:Body /></sp:EncryptedParts>) depends on the following policy selection preference rules:

Default -- The first policy alternative will be used for the determination. If the encrypted body assertion is in the first policy alternative, the body is encrypted. If the encrypted body assertion is not in the first policy alternative, the body is not encrypted.

SCP, SPC -- encrypted

PCS, PSC -- not encrypted

CPS -- not encrypted

CSP -- encrypted

Consider the following two examples. In Example 2-14, the encrypted body assertion is in the first policy alternative. Therefore, in the default preference case the body is encrypted. For policy selection preferences other than the default, the other preference rules apply.

By contrast, in Example 2-15, the encrypted body assertion is not in the first policy alternative. Therefore, in the default preference case the body is not encrypted. For policy selection preferences other than the default, the other preference rules apply.

Smart Policy Selection for a Standalone Client

The following example sets the stub property for security, compatibility, and performance preferences:

stub._setProperty(WLStub.POLICY_SELECTION_PREFERENCE,

WLStub.PREFERENCE_SECURITY_COMPATIBILITY_PERFORMANCE);

If the policy selection preference is not set, then the default preference (None) is used.

Multiple Transport Assertions

If there are multiple available transport-level assertions in your security policies, WebLogic Server uses the policy that requires https. If more than one policy alternative requires https, WebLogic Server randomly picks one of them. You should therefore avoid using multiple policy alternatives that contain mixed transport-level policy assertions.

Example of Adding Security to MTOM Web Service

Note:

The example shows adding security to a JAX-RPC Web service. In this release, MTOM with WS-Security is supported for both JAX-WS and JAX-RPC.

As described in Optimizing Binary Data Transmission Using MTOM/XOP, SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism/XML-binary Optimized Packaging (MTOM/XOP) defines a method for optimizing the transmission of XML data of type xs:base64Binary or xs:hexBinary in SOAP messages.

This section describes a combination of two examples that are already included with WebLogic Server :

WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\webservices\wss1.1

WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\webservices\mtom

These existing examples include functional code and extensive instructions.html files that describes their use and function, how to build them, and so forth This section does not repeat that information, but instead concentrates on the changes made to these examples, and the reasons for the changes.

Files Used by This Example

The example uses the files shown in Table 2-1. The contents of the source files are shown in subsequent sections.

Table 2-10 Files Used in MTOM/Security Example

File

Description

build.xml

Ant build file that contains targets for building and running the example.

configWss.py

WLST script that configures a Web Service security configuration. This file is copied without change from WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\webservices\wss1.1

MtomClient.java

Standalone client application that invokes the MTOM Web Service. This file uses the JAX-RPC Stubs generated by clientgen, based on the WSDL of the Web Service.

SecurityMtomService.java

JWS file that implements the MTOM Web Service. The JWS file uses the @Policy annotation to specify the WS-Policy files that are associated with the Web Service.

You can specify the @Policy annotation at both the class- and method- level. In this example, the annotation is used at the class-level to specify the pre-packaged WS-Policy files, which means all public operations of the Web Service are associated with the specified WS-Policy files.

You use the @Policies annotation to group together multiple @Policy annotations. You can specify this annotation at both the class- and method-level. In this example, the annotation is used at the class-level to group the four @Policy annotations that specify the pre-packaged WS-Policy files:

The pre-packaged WS-Policy file Mtom.xml enables MTOM encoding.

As described in Protection Assertion Policies, the Wssp1.2-2007-SignBody.xml policy file specifies that the body and WebLogic system headers of both the request and response SOAP message be digitally signed.

The Wssp1.2-2007-EncryptBody.xml policy file specifies that the body of both the request and response SOAP messages be encrypted.

The Wssp1.2-Wss1.1-EncryptedKey.xml symmetric binding policy uses the WS-Security 1.1 Encrypted Key feature. The client application invoking the Web Service must use the encrypted key to encrypt and sign, and the server must send Signature Confirmation.

MtomClient.java

MtomClient.java is a standalone client application that invokes the SecurityMtomService Web Service. It uses the JAX-RPC stubs generated by clientgen, based on the WSDL of the Web Service. The MtomClient code is shown in Example 2-17.

The client application uses the following WebLogic Web Services security APIs to create the needed client-side credential providers, as specified by the WS-Policy files that are associated with the Web Service:

weblogic.wsee.security.bst.ClientBSTCredentialProvider to create a binary security token credential provider, using the certificate and private key.

weblogic.xml.crypto.wss.WSSecurityContext to specify the list of credential providers to the JAX-RPC stub.

weblogic.xml.crypto.wss.provider.CredentialProvider, which is the main credential provider class.

When you write this client application, you need to consult the WS-Policy files associated with a Web Service to determine the types and number of credential providers that must be set in the JAX-RPC stub. Typically, if the WS-Policy file specifies that SOAP messages must be signed or encrypted, using X.509 for identity, then you must create a ClientBSTCredentialProvider. (If it specifies that the user provides a username token for identity, then the application must create a ClientUNTCredentialProvider.)

The example creates a client BST credential provider for the indicated keystore, certificate alias, and server certificate. The certificate passed for the parameter serverCert is used to encrypt the message body contents and to verify the received signature. Any KeyInfo received as part of the in-bound signature (for example, certificate thumbprint) must correctly identify the same server certificate.

The Web Services client runtime also consults this WSDL so it can correctly create the security headers in the SOAP request when an operation is invoked.

Finally, the client application must use the weblogic.security.SSL.TrustManager WebLogic security API to verify that the certificate used to encrypt the SOAP request is valid. The client runtime gets this certificate (serverCert in the example) from the deployed WSDL of the Web Service, which in real-life situations is not automatically trusted, so the client application must ensure that it is okay before it uses it to encrypt the SOAP request.

Note:

The client-side certificate and private key used in this example have been created for simple testing purposes, and therefore are always trusted by WebLogic Server. For this reason, there is no additional server-side security configuration needed to run this example. In real life, however, the client application would use a certificate from a real certificate authority, such as Verisign. In this case, administrators would need to use the WebLogic Administration Console to add this certificate to the list that is trusted by WebLogic Server.

configWss.py Script File

The SecurityMtomService Web Service does not explicitly invoke any WebLogic Server API to handle the requirements imposed by any associated policy files, nor does this Web Service have to understand which, if any, security providers, tokens, or other such mechanisms are involved.

The script file configWss.py uses WLST to create and configure the default Web Service security configuration, default_wss, for the active security realm. (The default Web Service security configuration is used by all Web Services in the domain unless they have been explicitly programmed to use a different configuration.) Further, this script makes sure that x509 tokens are supported, creates the needed security providers, and so forth.

Building and Running the Example

Set up your environment, as described in the MW_HOME\WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\examples.html instructions file.

MW_HOME\WL_HOME\samples\domains\wl_server>setExamplesEnv.cmd

Change to the MW_HOME\WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\webservices directory and create a new subdirectory called security_mtom.

Cut and paste the contents of the build.xml, configWss.py, MtomClient.java, and SecurityMtomService.java sections to files with the same names in the MW_HOME\WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\webservices\security_mtom directory.

Copy all of the files (clientKeyStore.jks, serverKeyStore.jks, and testServerCertTempCert.der) from

Example of Adding Security to Reliable Messaging Web Service

This section shows how to update the example to use the most recent version of the policy file. Oracle recommends that you use the new policy namespace, as shown in the revised example, as those are official namespaces from OASIS standards and they will perform better when interoperating with other vendors.

Overview of Secure and Reliable SOAP Messaging

Reliable SOAP messaging is a framework whereby an application running in one WebLogic Server instance can reliably invoke a Web Service running on another WebLogic Server instance. Reliable is defined as the ability to guarantee message delivery between the two Web Services.

WebLogic Web Services conform to the WS-ReliableMessaging 1.1 specification, which describes how two Web Services running on different WebLogic Server application servers can communicate reliably in the presence of failures in software components, systems, or networks. In particular, the specification describes an interoperable protocol in which a message sent from a source endpoint (client Web Service) to a destination endpoint (Web Service whose operations can be invoked reliably) is guaranteed either to be delivered, according to one or more delivery assurances, or to raise an error. The WS-ReliableMessaging specification defines an interoperable way to provide security by composing WS-ReliableMessaging with WS-SecureConversation and associating a reliable sequence with a secure session. At sequence creation time, the sending side needs to present a Security Token Reference to point to a Security Context Token that will be used to identify the owner of the sequence. All subsequent sequence messages and protocol messages in both directions will need to demonstrate proof-of-possession of the referenced key.

WebLogic reliable SOAP messaging works only between two Web Services. This means that you can invoke a WebLogic Web Service reliably only from another Web Service, and not from a standalone client application. This example shows how to create both types of Web Services (source and destination). The WsrmSecurityClient.java class is a standalone Java application that then invokes the source Web Service.

Overview of the Example

The existing example shows how to provide security functionality on top of reliability for Web Services messaging by creating two WebLogic Web Services:

Web Service whose operations can be invoked using reliable and secure SOAP messaging (destination endpoint). The destination ReliableEchoService Web Service has two operations that can be invoked reliably and in a secure way: echo and echoOneway.

Client Web Service that invokes an operation of the first Web Service in a reliable and secure way (source endpoint). The source ReliableEchoClientService Web Service has one operation for invoking the echo and echoOneway operations of the ReliableEchoService Web Service reliably and in a secure way within one conversation: echo.

The existing example includes functional code and an extensive instructions.html file that describes its use and function, how to build it, and so forth This section does not repeat that information, but instead concentrates on the changes made to the example, and the reasons for the changes.

How the Example Sets Up WebLogic Security

The configWSS.py WLST script sets up security for the WebLogic Server instance that hosts the source and destination Web Service. The security requirements are dictated by the WS-SecurityPolicy files associated with the destination Web Service.

The Wssp1.2-2007-Wssc1.3-Bootstrap-Wss1.0.xml policy imposes the following requirements:

WS-SecureConversation handshake is protected by WS-Security 1.0.

The application messages are signed and encrypted with DerivedKeys.

The soap:Body of the RequestSecurityToken and RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollection messages (part of the WS-SecureConversation handshake) are both signed and encrypted.

The WS-Addressing headers are signed.

Timestamp is included and signed.

The signature is encrypted.

The algorithm suite is Basic256.

In response, the configWSS.py WLST script performs the following functions:

Enables X.509 tokens for the default IdentityAsserter in the default security realm.

Configures the PKI credential mapper. This maps the initiator and target resource to a key pair or public certificate

In addition, the configWSSRuntime.py WLST script also performs the following function:

Sets up the PKI credential mapper (configured by configWSS.py) to invoke the destination Web Service.

Files Used by This Example

The example uses the files shown in Table 2-1. The contents of revised source files are shown in subsequent sections.

Table 2-12 Files Used in WSRM/Security Example

File

Description

build.xml

Ant build file that contains targets for building and running the example.

ReliableEchoClientServiceImpl.java

JWS file that implements the source Web Service that reliably invokes the echoOneWay and echo operation of the ReliableEchoService Web Service in a secure way. This JWS file uses the @ServiceClient annotation to specify the Web Service it invokes reliably.

WLST script that configures a SAF Agent, FileStore, JMS Server, and JMS queue, which are required for reliable SOAP messaging. Execute this script for the WebLogic Server instance that hosts the reliable destination Web Service. The out-of-the-box Examples server has already been configured for the source Web Service that invokes an operation reliably.

configWss.py

WLST script that configures a credential provider for Security Context Token, a credential provider for Derived Key, a credential provider for x.509, KeyStores for Confidentiality and Integrity, and PKI Cred Mapper which are required for secure SOAP messaging. Execute this script for the WebLogic Server instance that hosts the source and destination Web Service. Remember to restart the Weblogic server after executing this script

configWss_Service.py

WLST script that configures a credential provider for Security Context Token, a credential provider for Derived Key, a credential provider for x.509, KeyStores for Confidentiality and Integrity which are required by the server host the destination Web Service for secure SOAP messaging. Execute this script for the WebLogic Server instance that hosts the destination Web Service when the source and destination Web Service are hosted in two servers. Remember to restart the Weblogic server after executing this script.

configWssRuntime.py

WLST script that configures a KeyPair Credential for invoking the destination Web Service.

Standalone Java client application that invokes the source WebLogic Web Service, that in turn invokes an operation of the ReliableEchoService Web Service in a reliable and secure way.

Revised ReliableEchoServiceImpl.java

The ReliableEchoServiceImpl.java JWS file is the same as that in WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\webservices\wsrm_security\ReliableEchoServiceImpl.java, with the revised Policy annotation shown in bold.

You can specify the @Policy annotation at both the class- and method- level. In this example, the annotation is used at the class-level to specify the pre-packaged WS-Policy files, which means all public operations of the Web Service are associated with the specified WS-Policy files.

Revised configWss.py

The ReliableEchoServiceImpl Web Service does not explicitly invoke any WebLogic Server API to handle the requirements imposed by any associated policy files, nor does this Web Service have to understand which, if any, security providers, tokens, or other such mechanisms are involved.

The script file configWss.py uses WLST to create and configure the default Web Service security configuration, default_wss, for the active security realm. (The default Web Service security configuration is used by all Web Services in the domain unless they have been explicitly programmed to use a different configuration.) Further, this script makes sure that x509 tokens are supported, creates the needed security providers, and so forth.

The configWss.py file is the same as that in WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\webservices\wsrm_security\configWss.py, with the changes shown in bold. The build.xml file provides the command input.

Revised configWss_Service.py

The configWss_Service.py script is similar to configWss.py, but it is used only when the source and destination Web Service are hosted in two servers.

The configWss_Service.py file is the same as that in WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\webservices\wsrm_security\configWss_Service.py, with the changes shown in bold. The build.xml file provides the command input.

Building and Running the Example

After you have changed the example to use the new policy namespace, follow the steps in the WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples\webservices\wsrm_security\instructions.html file to build and run the example.

There are no changes needed to these steps.

Proprietary Web Services Security Policy Files (JAX-RPC Only)

Previous releases of WebLogic Server, released before the formulation of the WS-SecurityPolicy specification, used security policy files written under the WS-Policy specification, using a proprietary schema for security policy.

Note:

The security policy files written under the Web Services security policy schema are deprecated in this release.

WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 policy files and proprietary Web Services security policy schema files are not mutually compatible; you cannot define both types of policy file in the same Web Service. If you want to use WS-Security 1.1 features, you must use the WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2 policy file format.

This section describes the set of pre-packaged Web Services security policy schema files included in WebLogic Server. These policy files are all abstract; see Abstract and Concrete Policy Files for details.

The policy assertions used in these security policy files to configure message-level security for a WebLogic Web Service are based on the assertions described in the December 18, 2002 version of the Web Services Security Policy Language (WS-SecurityPolicy) specification. This means that although the exact syntax and usage of the assertions in WebLogic Server are different, they are similar in meaning to those described in the specification. The assertions are not based on later updates of the specification.

The pre-packaged Web Services security policy files are:

Auth.xml specifies that the client must authenticate itself. Can be used on its own, or together with Sign.xml and Encrypt.xml.

Sign.xml specifies that the SOAP messages are digitally signed. Can be used on its own, or together with Auth.xml and Encrypt.xml.

Encrypt.xml specifies that the SOAP messages are encrypted. Can be used on its own, or together with Auth.xml and Sign.xml.

Wssc-dk.xml specifies that the client and service share a security context when multiple messages are exchanged and that derived keys are used for encryption and digital signatures, as described by the WS-SecureConversation specification.

Note:

This pre-packaged policy file is meant to be used on its own and not together with Auth.xml, Sign.xml, Encrypt.xml, or Wssc-sct.xml. Also, Oracle recommends that you use this policy file, rather than Wssc-sct.xml ( Wssc-sct.xml), if you want the client and service to share a security context, due to its higher level of security.

Wssc-sct.xml specifies that the client and service share a security context when multiple messages are exchanged, as described by the WS-SecureConversation specification.

Note:

This pre-packaged policy file is meant to be used on its own and not together with Auth.xml, Sign.xml, Encrypt.xml, or Wssc-dk.xml. Also, Oracle provides this policy file to support the various use cases of the WS-SecureConversation specification; however, Oracle recommends that you use the Wssc-dk.xml ( Wssc-dk.xml) policy file, rather than Wssc-sct.xml ( Wssc-sct.xml), if you want the client and service to share a security context, due to its higher level of security.

Abstract and Concrete Policy Files

Abstract policy files do not explicitly specify the security tokens that are used for authentication, encryption, and digital signatures, but rather, the Web Services runtime environment determines the security tokens when the Web Service is deployed. Specifically, this means the <Identity> and <Integrity> elements (or assertions) of the policy files do not contain a <SupportedTokens><SecurityToken> child element, and the <Confidentiality> element policy file does not contain a <KeyInfo><SecurityToken> child element.

If your Web Service is associated with only the pre-packaged policy files, then client authentication requires username tokens. Web Services support only one type of token for encryption and digital signatures (X.509), which means that in the case of the <Integrity> and <Confidentiality> elements, concrete and abstract policy files end up being essentially the same.

If your Web Service is associated with an abstract policy file and it is published as an attachment to the WSDL (which is the default behavior), the static WSDL file packaged in the Web Service archive file (JAR or WAR) will be slightly different than the dynamic WSDL of the deployed Web Service. This is because the static WSDL, being abstract, does not include specific <SecurityToken> elements, but the dynamic WSDL does include these elements because the Web Services runtime has automatically filled them in when it deployed the service. For this reason, in the code that creates the JAX-RPC stub in your client application, ensure that you specify the dynamic WSDL or you will get a runtime error when you try to invoke an operation: HelloService service = new HelloService(Dynamic_WSDL);

Concrete policy files explicitly specify the details of the security tokens at the time the Web Service is programmed. Programmers create concrete security policy files when they know, at the time they are programming the service, the details of the type of authentication (such as using x509 or SAML tokens); whether multiple private key and certificate pairs from the keystore are going to be used for encryption and digital signatures; and so on.

Auth.xml

The WebLogic Server Auth.xml file, shown below, specifies that the client application invoking the Web Service must authenticate itself with one of the tokens (username or X.509) that support authentication.

Because the pre-packaged Web Services security policy schema files are abstract, there is no specific username or X.509 token assertions in the Auth.xml file at development-time. Depending on how you have configured security for WebLogic Server, either a username token, an X.509 token, or both will appear in the actual runtime-version of the Auth.xml policy file associated with your Web Service. Additionally, if the runtime-version of the policy file includes an X.509 token and it is applied to a client invoke, then the entire body of the SOAP message is signed.

If you want to specify that only X.509, and never username tokens, be used for identity, or want to specify that, when using X.509 for identity, only certain parts of the SOAP message be signed, then you must create a custom security policy file.

Sign.xml

The WebLogic Server Sign.xml file specifies that the body and WebLogic-specific system headers of the SOAP message be digitally signed. It also specifies that the SOAP message include a Timestamp, which is digitally signed, and that the token used for signing is also digitally signed. The token used for signing is included in the SOAP message.

The following headers are signed when using the Sign.xml security policy file:

Wssc-dk.xml

Specifies that the client and Web Service share a security context, as described by the WS-SecureConversation specification, and that a derived key token is used. This ensures the highest form of security.

This policy file provides the following configuration:

A derived key token is used to sign all system SOAP headers, the timestamp security SOAP header, and the SOAP body.

A derived key token is used to encrypt the body of the SOAP message. This token is different from the one used for signing.

Each SOAP message uses its own pair of derived keys.

For both digital signatures and encryption, the key length is 16 (as opposed to the default 32)

The lifetime of the security context is 12 hours.

If you need to change the default security context and derived key behavior, you will have to create a custom security policy file, described in later sections.

Note:

If you specify this pre-packaged security policy file, you should not also specify any other pre-packaged security policy file.

Wssc-sct.xml

Specifies that the client and Web Service share a security context, as described by the WS-SecureConversation specification. In this case, security context tokens are used to encrypt and sign the SOAP messages, which differs from Wssc-dk.xml ( Wssc-dk.xml) in which derived key tokens are used. The Wssc-sct.xml policy file is provided to support all the use cases of the specification; for utmost security, however, Oracle recommends you always use Wssc-dk.xml ( Wssc-dk.xml) when specifying shared security contexts due to its higher level of security.

This security policy file provides the following configuration:

A security context token is used to sign all system SOAP headers, the timestamp security SOAP header, and the SOAP body.

A security context token is used to encrypt the body of the SOAP message.

The lifetime of the security context is 12 hours.

If you need to change the default security context and derived key behavior, you will have to create a custom security policy file, described in later sections.

Note:

If you specify this pre-packaged security policy file, you should not also specify any other pre-packaged security policy file.